Page Two: Reform School

There are things that seem to me impossible for people to believe, but that has never meant they don't believe them. There are any number of different groups ranting against the government. All of them enumerate its failures, while a significant number seem to believe that the situation is hopeless and beyond saving through the electoral process. This is a look at the most extreme of those groups, but the opinion is widespread.

The thinking runs that politicians are mostly corrupt, greedy, and dishonest. When elected, they use the government to enrich themselves and tyrannize citizens, taking away their rights and ignoring the Constitution. They serve not their constituents but only the moneyed special interests and/or secret organizations that really rule. They intentionally commit a wide range of abuses in an effort to destroy this country.

The left and the right, conservatives and liberals, radicals and reactionaries all espouse some variant on that scenario. Old-left communists still rant against capitalism, anarchists rail against every organized group, and our conspiracy hobbyist brothers and sisters urge us to toss aside the old and "phony" paradigm of left vs. right for the real power struggle: the people against the evil elite.

Now, that motif is by no means limited to the conspiracy collectors. The exact definition of the "people" and the "evil elite" just varies with different groups, each trimming those terms to fit its beliefs.

In the political middle, there is more the sense that the problem is greed, special interest groups, personal weaknesses, party partisans, money, and big business. The equation is usually quite simple: "We are overtaxed. The way to cut taxes without destroying basic federal services is to cut government fat and throw out the corrupt politicians. Most of what the government does it fails at, thus providing very few necessary services to its citizens."

The more politically extreme groups demonize not just the government but other groups, which demonize them right back. The exact villainy of a group is rarely self-articulated; rather, it is explained and defined by the opposition. The definers are always good, noble, and heroic, while the groups they've tagged as enemies are evil, overtly wishing to destroy freedom and this country.

In these extreme scenarios, more often than not the failures of the government, legislative deadlock and missteps, crises, problems unsolved, bad laws, and the like all happen because corrupt, inhuman monsters work to make them happen as part of a conspiratorial scheme.

Now, all of these different groups that insist that the government is dramatically broken talk about politics only in the broadest generalities rather than ever discussing specific issues. They also use phrases and slogans that are more romantic than helpful:

"Talking truth to power." "The people united will never be defeated." "The sheeple have to have their eyes and minds open to the truth." "Free markets and free enterprise equal freedom." "The tree of liberty needs to be nourished with blood every 20 years." "The government serves the people, not the other way around." "We need to reform a corrupt system." These all share the common implication that if the people took the power into their own hands, most problems would disappear.

It seems impossible to accept that there are people who really believe that bad things happen because of bad people – so that the only way to overthrow evil, it is argued, is if the people rise up to take back their government. This may even require force.

After such an overthrow takes place, according to this view, the country will again be a proud, sovereign constitutional republic where political transgressions, illegal acts, unconstitutional laws, and unnecessary interference in people's lives will end. It won't exactly be pure utopia but close to it. The largest internal political problems – such as vicious partisan divisions, the greatest government abuses, and the seeming inability of Congress to legislate in the best interests of the people – will for the most part be gone: If good, well-intentioned people were running the government, there would be few problems.

Many people who speak out against the government seem to believe absolutely that they are very much speaking for most Americans. There is not just a silent majority but a vast silent majority that shares almost exactly the same beliefs as the person speaking; no matter what that person's beliefs, they are assumed to be shared and dominant. There is a harmonious American ideology, in other words, but the government has undermined it.

Remember Ross Perot's Reform Party, which rose to prominence in the late 1990s. Millions signed on because, "Gosh, reform sounds like such a good idea that it should be a central plank in any campaign platform." Reform means better, fairer, and more honest government, which is what we all desire. The problem is that nonspecific reform sounds great but without actual details is nearly meaningless. It is like being in favor of good.

Currently, Alex Jones has emerged as an international leader in the conspiracy community. Jones has an advantage over most ideologues in that, as he points out, he knows and speaks "the truth," while the rest of us at best can offer only our simple opinions. Jones denounces the New World Order, which is believed to have plans to wipe out 80% of the world's population. He explains the conspiratorial roots of every tragedy and political decision, from 9/11 being an inside job to the NWO's ability to control the weather causing Katrina to every flu epidemic being staged so the people can be poisoned by so-called "vaccines."

Jones makes it clear that the most patriotic action is resistance to the NWO puppet government, which would ultimately lead to a second (or next) American Revolution. In his calmer moments, he insists that this revolution does not have to be violent but can be achieved by spreading "the truth" and exposing the NWO. At other times, it is clear that he regards violence as a perhaps necessary course.

TV pundit Glenn Beck says almost the same things as Jones does, but rather than blaming our current ills on an evil conspiracy of the elites, he believes in an evil conspiracy of Americans who hold progressive and liberal views with which he disagrees. These two views are not conflicting visions of what the government of this country should be, according to Beck. It is the blatantly good – conservative, right-leaning, religious, patriotic real Americans – against the "evil" out to intentionally destroy the country: liberal/progressive/Marxist/communist traitors. Jones is a brother wolf threatening to blow our house down, as it is made of paper and tissues, while Beck is a clown-faced bobble-head toy, lacking substance but urging hate.

The argument boiled bare is pretty simple: It is not that we face complicated, and in some cases nearly impossible, problems that come about from a wide range of natural causes, including the environment, historic injustice, social and economic inequalities, education, opportunities for advancement, availability of jobs, and so on. Political disagreements are never principled nor based in a concern for the common good that is shared by most Americans (even when they have strong ideological differences).

Instead, it posits that problems come from evil people: The only thing needed to make the government "good" (serve the people) is to eliminate the "bad," as most Americans share the same political beliefs about government. Allowed to function autonomously and constitutionally, given these common ideas, creating a new government will be easy. All that is needed is to put good, well-intentioned people in charge.

This is where I offer a screwball theory so blasted that people will be tempted to wake their children up so they can join in the laughter. What if the problem is not that the population is enslaved but that most citizens feel too empowered? The government, in trying to respond to so many different ideas, opinions, and attitudes, becomes stymied. What if the problem is not evil people but patriots who love this country and merely have very different views as to what its problems are and how to solve them? The trouble results not from malignant forces but actually comes right out of a U.S. Constitution that purposefully guarantees gridlock.

The simplistic notion that bad government comes from evil people trivializes all the ongoing complications, differences, and compromises critical to the functioning of a republic. It isn't bad people; it is the incredible difficulties involved in governing, as well as the complications inherent in all of us living and working together. If there is a revolution, here's betting that the new government that emerges ends up just as disharmonious and polarized as it is now – if not considerably worse.

This may simply be the rant of a delusional and diseased mind. In all honesty, however, I fear our constitutional republic is far more likely to be done in by those claiming to defend it than by any intentionally out to destroy it.